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On Thursday, May 30, 2013 at 7:00 PM, at The Americas Society in New York City, the Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron and Adda Kridler, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello - www.momentaquartet.com) will give the long-awaited full-version world premiere of Brazilian composer Arthur Kampela's Uma Faca Só Lâmina ("A Knife All Blade," 1998). Arthur Kampela (http://www.kampela.com), based in New York City, has made a name for himself as a virtuoso guitarist, improviser, and leader of the avant-garde bossa-nova Arthur Kampela Band. He also holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University, and has received commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Fromm Foundation and the New York Philharmonic, among others; however, he still considers this 1998 quartet his most important work to date.

Praised by Sequenza21 for its "fire, fantasy, and absolute musical commitment" and by the Washington Post for "an extraordinary musical experience," Momenta is the first and only group ever to tackle Kampela's fiercely difficult string quartet, which takes its name from a surrealist poem by the eminent Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto. Some of the world's leading contemporary ensembles have shown deep interest in the piece but have been deterred by its extreme complexity. Momenta took it on in 2009 as part of an intense multi-year collaboration with Kampela, and by the time of the premiere, will have put in over 150 hours of rehearsal time.

Momenta will round out the program with two new Latin American works written especially for the quartet: Alma de Guije (2012) by Cuban composer Ileana Pérez Velázquez, and Venezuelan composer Manena Contreras' Trazos (2010) for bassoon and string quartet. The quartet will be joined in the latter work by sought-after bassoonist Adrian Morejon (http://www.adrianmorejon.com), lauded for his "teeming energy" and "precise control" by the New York Times.